First Eye Exam

Yesterday afternoon the girls' had their first ever eye exam with an ophthalmologist. We had no concerns going into the appointment; it was simply a routine exam to make sure everything looked as it should.

Carie, as well as her entire family, is rather blind without their contacts or glasses so we anticipate the girls' reaping the benefits of these gene's. Then one day the school sent home a recommendation for eye screening (to all the preschool kids) and a list of kid-friendly eye doctors who provided free screening.

So we finally made the appointment and went in. I was really impressed with the office and the girls' did awesome! As usual, in an uncertain environment, when asked who wants to go first each girl volunteer’s her sister. To encourage one of them to be brave enough to go before the other, Carie hopped on the chair and went first. Finally Ellie decided that she was ready for her turn. She was even ready to sit on the chair all by herself. But, they ended up sitting on Carie's lap to better reach the equipment. When moving to the 2nd room they got to sit in the chairs all by themselves.

The trickiest part for the girls' was holding still. I was amazed at how many different ways they looked at their eyes. I can't remember all the things they looked for, but it seemed rather extensive while not being invasive.

All in all, we left with a clean bill of perfect eyesight. Their next visit will be just before they start kindergarten, which is only in 17 months. At that appointment they’ll dilate their eyes and do further screening.

His Eleventh Month

Our boy is 11 months old and I'm in denial.

On one hand I absolutely love watching him change before our very eyes. On the other hand I miss his long lost babyness. He has grown so fast it is simply incredible. I couldn't imagine our lives without him.

He's talking up a storm. Much of it is unrecognizable, even to us. He's got this authoritative grunt/noise, in his deepest voice possible, that he makes which cracks us up. It sounds like he's telling you off. The other end of the spectrum is his high-pitched jabber. The boy is loud! He loves saying Abby's name, but poor Ellie was feeling a bit left out I think. Those L's are really tricky though. Finally, 3 days after turning 11 months he said Ellie's name crystal clear. I think Ellie is feeling loved again. Now we need to work on Mommy.

He's still a climber and it really seems to be his nature. He's always in motion it is amazing. Between his incredible strength, his size, his constant motion, and his indecisiveness on whether to be held or not be held... it is terribly difficult to keep up with him. Thankfully though we still have our quiet cuddle time before bed where he nurses as he drifts off to sleep. There's something about the routine that allows him to wind down and be still. It is quite sweet.

I also love those few moments when it is really quiet in the house and he hears the train that is passing by. We live many blocks away from some tracks and we rarely hear a train passing. But in those perfect moments in time we can hear the trains whistle. I love the look on his face when he hears it. He stops to take note of it's sound as he looks for the source. It is a noise that intrigues him. I love that he can hear it!

His strength is incredible. He picks up everything to bring to him rather than him going to the object. It doesn't matter if it is the dogs ceramic water dish or his toy piano, he must pick it up to be at his level.

He's really gotten into dancing... or his version of dancing. We of course think it is the cutest thing ever. He's got a bit of Stevie Wonder action going on.

He's such a ham. His most favorite activity recently has got to be entertaining his sisters. He absolutely loves to do things to make them laugh. When he is successful, which is often, he then breaks out into laughter. He totally knows that they are laughing at what he is doing.

Of course, helping with all things dishwasher related and playing in the bathroom still falls in the top 10 favorite activities. He can hear that dishwasher door from 3 rooms away. The bathroom is pretty much off limits and the only way to keep him out is to keep the door closed. If the door is open he spots it faster than anyone. Since he can open and shut the toilet lid, the bathroom door is our only hope at keeping him out of the toilet. He also loves to unroll as much toilet paper as possible, play in the recently used shower, and unload items from the drawers.

Field Trip

The girls' had another field trip for school today, this time to the Children's Museum.

Both girls' were super excited about the field trip. Leading up to the day they'd talk endlessly about it. They'd tell anyone who would listen! Then, unfortunately, the tides turned on Monday morning... the day before the trip. It was clear that they talked about the field trip in school on Monday. It was clear that they talked about sticking together so they wouldn't get "lost". When we picked them up from school on Monday Ellie was no longer excited about the upcoming field trip, instead she appeared to be terrified. She had changed her tune and now did not even want to go on the trip. We kept reassuring her that it would be great fun, we would be with her and we wouldn't let her get lost. Still the next morning at breakfast she was not on board. Still clearly worried about getting lost.

UNTIL she learned that they got to ride in Momma's car. Whew! This is something that almost never happens. They always ride in the van. We quickly changed the focus from the field trip to riding in the car and the rest of the morning went smoothly. Suddenly the excitement was back and somehow the fear of getting lost at the museum was no longer of concern.

So off we went to the museum, the girls' and I. Carie and Spencer left to go their own way. Spencer was having his first field trip too. A friend of ours had kindly agreed to have him come and play for the morning. After dropping off Spencer and getting him all settled for his morning nap, Carie joined us at the museum. It was great to have her there with us!

The field trip was mostly like any other trip we've taken to the Children's Museum. We checked out many of the exhibits, played on the farm, played in the grocery store, played with the balls, went to story time, made some crafts, and painted faces.

Today though they got to eat lunch with their friends at the museum. It was fascinating to see all these kids sit together for lunch. Abby & Ellie didn't sit together; rather they each chose a spot next to a pre-school friend. They both sat quite nicely through lunch, something that doesn't often happen at home. Though, no surprises here, both girls' were the last to finish up. After all that time Ellie had done marginally well with the amount that she ate and Abby barely touched her lunch.

After lunch we played some more before hearing that it was time for our field trip to end. After saying good-bye to our friends and teachers we had to go check out the chimp exhibit one more time before leaving the museum for the day.

It was time to go get Spencer from our friend’s house. We arrived to a sad sad boy who had just fully realized that none of his people were there. It was good timing, really. He had a great morning and hadn't been sad for long. We entered and reassured him that everything was okay. Much cuddles and kissing. Then he was off to continue his play with his friend. It was really good for him to be in a new environment, nap in a new environment, and play with someone a bit closer to his age. Our friend, of course, loved him to pieces.

We stayed for a bit and all the kids played while the adults chatted. Though while playing Ellie was kind enough to show their daughter (18ish months) an escape route out of their gated area. It was a great area for the kids to play in and they had it gated off quite nicely... except for the area where the furniture acted as the barrier. All of a sudden Ellie and their daughter ended up on the other side of the gate, much to our friends surprise. Hopefully their daughter will forget all about that escape route after a good nights sleep!

After showing their daughter the ropes on how to get into trouble, we headed home for Spencer's afternoon nap. I was lucky and got to nap as well!

All in all, a great day.

Spring Is Here And Love Is In The Air...

When I picked up the girls from school today all three kids wanted to check out the birdies in their cage. As we are standing there discussing how it would be a bad idea to open the door to the cage because the birdies would fly out and get lost one of Abby's teachers, Ms. Kim, stopped to chat with us.

We chatted for a few minutes about how the teachers had enjoyed their unexpected two snow days and then, almost as an after thought, Ms. Kim mentions that Abby has not one, but two ardent admirers in her class. In Ms. Kim's words, these two boys are head over heels in love with Abby. I, of course, want to know which two boys are pining over my little girl. Zach is one of them (I know who he is) and John is the other (I have no idea who this kid is, but Ms. Kim has promised to point him out to me).

Apparently John finagled a seat next to Abby at snack time today and was so "love sick" (again, Ms. Kim's words) that he spent all of his time staring at her and could hardly eat his cheese and crackers. According to Ms. Kim, Abby has noticed all of this extra attention from these two boys, but seems more annoyed about it than anything. She is busy trying to play and John and Zach try to play with her, but she just wants to do her own thing and doesn't really appreciate John and Zach getting in her way. That is just fine with me. If only she can maintain that attitude until she's 27 I'll be happy.

We left Ms. Kim to go out to the van. As I navigate the three kids through the parking lot a mom pulling out rolls down her window and stops to talk to me. Apparently her son, Nathan, has just informed her that Abby is his girlfriend and she thought I should know.

Oh boy...it's going to be a long time before these girls turn 27.

~ Carie

Another One Bites The Dust

I swear they go through the bottles as fast as we stock them.

Or, it seems that way.

In all fairness, it has been a while since they've emptied an entire bottle of soap into the bath.

I guess the idea of special Dora Bubble Bath where we use just 2 capfuls for 1 bath went out the window. But I swear they were totally on board at the store today when purchasing their first special bottle of bubble bath. They were still on board at the start of the bath. It clearly all went south when I removed Spencer from the bath and took him to get jammies.

Carie is the lucky one who first discovered the major amounts of bubbles. The picture doesn't do it justice. Many of the bubbles had been washed away by that point.

I'm told that conversation went something like this...
Carie (to herself): WHAT the F*** is going on in here?
Carie (outloud): HOW many times have we talked about NOT dumping soap into the bathtub?
Abby: 10
Carie: About busts a gut, turns away, and thinks about leaving the room
Abby: (sounding unsure about her prior response) 18?

Looks like we need a different strategy.

Graffiti

I noticed this this morning. Lovely!














She printed her name all nicely. What Mom shouldn't be proud? I mean she's only 3 1/2 going on 40.

I call the stuff at the end her signature. Your not supposed to be able to read a signature, right?

Oh yeah, this wasn't a wall even on the list to be painted. It is in a highly visible, high traffic area... though "I" didn't even notice it until this morning. And yes, that is permanent black marker.

Pots Pots Pots

We have a problem with our pots, as in pots and pans, in our house!

The history...

It all started a few years ago. My brother worked in our city, which is an hour away from their home. Sometimes he'd stay with us to save a drive home. One day he went to make something to eat. The starting point was boiling water on the stove. Sounds pretty basic. Well, somehow during this boiling water process the bottom of the pan separated from the pan itself. Imagine a very hot pan separating. Yeah, the counter was damaged. We just wish he had gotten the floor too!

Old set of pots and pans... gone in favor of a new set.

Then a few months ago Carie was making dinner. One element of dinner was steamed broccoli, a favorite in this house. Well, somehow it was crazy around here (imagine that!) and the broccoli made it into the steam basket but the water didn't make it into the pan. It is pretty hard to steam broccoli with dry steam. This time, the pan stuck together! But the pan was severely damaged and the broccoli reeked... definitely not edible.

Then Friday night I tried helping make dinner when I got home. Broccoli was involved, again. I noticed that the broccoli hadn't been started yet the other components of dinner were nearly complete. I turn on the burner, took the pan to put water in it, decide that it will take too long to steam broccoli given the state of everything else, put the pan back on the stove with no water and no broccoli. Instead, we decide to heat up some green beans so I'm all over that task.

Yeah, I forgot to turn off the stove but at that moment I don't yet realize it. It wasn't until dinner was nearly done that I realized that the burner was on and the pan was really hot. I turn off the burner and pull off the pan. I checked to make sure that all the pieces were sticking together and if they weren't, I was going to ensure that it landed on our floor. But it was all holding together strong. Later on I moved the still warm pot to a hot pad far out of the reach of 6 little hands.

After bedtime we make it back to the kitchen. It is then that I realize that the pot had melted the hot pad. Actually, my first thought was that the pan had separated just as it had for my brother. But no, it completely demolished a hot pad and the pan now it looks like the other pan Carie did a number on months ago.

Based on the looks of hot pad, we are lucky that it didn't get the counter... again.









Two down, the big one's at that, one to go!









Figuring that it would be hard to cook in a 1qt saucepan, we've replaced this set.

After reading some of the material that comes with the new set it doesn't seem that there is a pan out there that can withstand dry steaming broccoli. With that in mind, I convinced Carie to get the 14 piece set over the 10 piece set... that gives us 2 more pans to burn through before having to do this all over again.

Winter Today, Spring Tomorrow?

So... tomorrow is the first day of spring?

Winter is sure going out with a bang!

It started snowing this morning and continued through most of the day. The snow was perfect for building with. The girls' were quite excited to play in the snow!

School is already cancelled for tomorrow in anticipation of the 14-18" of additional snow predicted. The weather folks are calling it "Thunder Snow"!?!?

Poor flowers!!!

Poster Child For Head Injuries

Ellie is the recent winner in our household.

First the fireplace, then the something in our backyard. We've gotten conflicting stories, imagine that!


What we have concluded is the wood box jumped out and grabbed her. It has turned a lovely shade of lavender.

Who Needs Their Own Bed?

After much entertaining and a lengthy bedtime, the girls' finally fell asleep.

We found them both in Abby's bed when we went to check on them. If Ellie weren't such a wild sleeper, we would have left them.

Monkey See, Monkey Do!

Things looked better from this angle tonight. He kept tucking his head like he wanted to do a somersault.

Abby then decided to join in the fun and provide some encouragement.

Discovery

The boy has discovered a means to the great outdoors.

Sibling Love

Abby captured this great picture. I took so many pictures trying to get the two of them together. They were so cute hanging out in Spencer's bed.

It took Abby only one click.

Awwww....

Play Time

We ended up in Lincoln, unexpectedly, on Saturday. After taking care of some family stuff, we tried to give Spencer some time to nap. He fell asleep in the van, so we went to the park so the girls' could play.

Spencer slept a little, but clearly thought he needed to play too. Spencer's been to the park a few times in his life, but I think this was the first time he got to join in the fun. It will be so nice when spring is here and we can go to the park more often.

It was a gorgeous day outside. Everyone had so much fun!

Natural Consequences

I learned a valuable lesson while painting Sunday night... very very late Sunday night.














The wider the angle is, between your ladder and the wall, the greater propensity there is that you'll put a large whole through your wall.

At least this seems to be the case when you are 13 feet off the ground. If things don't seem right and you hear an odd sound, get off the ladder fast! The whole end of the ladder went through the drywall. Thankfully it was just one side of the ladder and not both.

Oh, and always do the "fun" color first in case your spouse decides that they like it so much that the other walls (that you just painted the prior weekend) ought to be this new fun color as well.

Note - don't mind the ceiling. I overlapped the wall color on purpose since I'm painting the ceiling next... or soon, hopefully.

Fresh Canvas

Last weekend we were successful in creating a fresh canvas for the youngsters. I will say that I don't think it is just our kids who have marked up the walls. :)

The Crayon, Vaseline, Ink, and Poop are all gone from the majorly offended walls. For the record, it took 3 coats of primer and 2 coats of paint to cover the Vaseline!

Unfortunately, those walls lead to other walls that now must be painted. Those walls lead to other walls that could be painted, those walls lead... well, you know. On top of the kid damage, there was some water damage that we are repairing as well... which also requires the ceiling to be painted, and if we are doing the ceiling in that room we might as well do this other room too. Oh, and none of these walls are normal height with a flat ceiling... added bonus.

Gotta love the justification!

So those few walls are done and they look marvelous. So much better than before! But life (school, eating, naps, grocery shopping, laundry, parenting) goes on so it felt like it took a really darn long time to make that progress. I took a couple of days off work to help jumpstart the process. It helped, but we still have a long way to go. Our goal is to complete this project by early April. It's going to be a long month! If it isn't done by Easter, there isn't much chance we'll get back to it until next winter.

Before getting started both girls' shared concern over what we were about to do. They went to the store with me to get a fresh can of primer. We needed a lot of primer! Ellie asked what color paint I was getting. I said "white". She had a fit and refused to go into the store. She did not want me to paint over her colors. Turns out, she was most worried about us painting over her purple walls in her room. Abby had this same fit a few days prior. I reassured them that we would not paint their purple walls. They were relieved! BUT, I was going to paint over the artwork on these other walls AND I would appreciate it if they did all their future artwork at the table on paper.

While we were painting (tag team painting at that) the girls' wanted to help so badly. They were desperate to help paint. It was an excellent time to reiterate that I was not doing artwork. Besides, I'm kind of an anal painter... just ask Carie :).

I did offer them an opportunity to do an art project AT the table ON paper :). We ended up going to a movie instead.

Recognizable Noise

Spencer has been quite vocal lately. His chatter and his volume have, without a doubt, increased since his tube surgery. Most of the noise is loud shrieking, as if he is singing... like a girl even. A lot of it is ba ba, da da, la la, ma ma kinds of sounds. Between he and the girls', it can definitely pierce the ears!

Tonight though, tonight was different. The noise level was still off the charts, but I could make sense out of the noise. I heard "Abby" come out of Spencer's mouth. I said Carie, did you hear that? As amazed as I was, she said yes! The rest of the night he kept saying Abby with a variation of Abbu.

After dinner we went outside for a short while. The girls' got to race their bikes, Spencer got to swing. The most exciting thing though was when a neighbor walked by with her three small dogs. We crossed the street to chat and check out the dogs, at which point Spencer said "dog-dog".

So... mom-mom, bye-bye (which left his vocabulary as quick as it came), Abby/Abbu, and dog-dog are the words of choice for the boy.

Concept Of Money

According to the girls', $1 really equals $4.

You see... there are four 1's, one in each corner of the bill. So add them all up and you've got $4.

Sounds reasonable to me! If only it were true.

Ellie vs The Fireplace

Score: Ellie 1 / Fire Place 0

Watching Them Is Amazing

Stepping back and watching what my children can do is amazing to me. I love to see how they process things. Each of their minds works in unique and amazing ways. Being able to witness this has got to be one of the most rewarding aspects of parenting for me.

Spencer is at the stage where he is learning so much so fast. Most of his drive at the moment seems to be related to physical accomplishments. He appears to be constantly processing how he can get from point A to B, where point B involves some level of climbing. He's quite a lot like Ellie was in this regard. Then it is wonderful to see him sit still for those brief moments while he flips through his books. Watching him point at objects and touch textures in his books is so cool. In this area, he is much like Abby was.

Ellie is, well Ellie. It is hard to describe Ellie. She has this innocence about her. Her circular logic is so so amazing. She's bright and spacey all wrapped into one. It is a joy to watch her facial and hand expressions when she talks. She gives the absolute best hugs and kisses. She is showing interest in pre-reading activities and imaginative play consumes her day.

Abby is a bit more serious. She's our problem solver. Watching her at dinner last night reminded me of how much I like to watch all of them do their thing. She too is big into imaginative play and pre-reading activities. Last night she was using her crayons for something other than coloring. I've witnessed this before but it seems that this was Carie's first time. Abby was making letters out of them. What amazes me is how she'd move from one letter to another based on its shape. Starting with a T, changing it slightly to make an I, then turning it to make an H. Or starting with a A and turning it upside down to make a V, etc... Watching her light up as she turned her letters and added/removed colors was amazing and wonderful. Oh, and it was also nice that it was a quiet activity at the table while we were waiting for our dinner.

It is also impossible to:
1) Make it through a conversation without them asking what letter everything starts with. To which we ask them what they think it starts with. They sound it out, think about it, and generally are right on. Then they tell us a whole slew of other words that start with that same letter. If Ellie can't figure it out, her guess is always "B" or "W"... and then Abby corrects her.

2) Go anywhere without them discussing which path everyone is to go as we move from point A to B. Thank you Dora!

Ear Saga Continues

I have no idea why we thought we were moving onto a better place... a place that didn't include fluid in my children's ears. But nooooooooo.

We had an ENT appointment Friday afternoon for Spencer and Abby.

Going into it we suspected that Abby had fluid in her right ear. Since she lost the tube in that ear we've been battling fluid build up. Just a few weeks ago the school’s audiologist did a tympanogram and it came back fairly flat, not good. We’ve been trying different things, with great resistance, to open up the eustation tube. Figuring that we haven’t made progress we are taking it to the next level. So we were prepared for that and were seeking advice on how to clear it up. They were discussing doing an x-ray to help them evaluate what is going on. First though we are going to try other ways of clearing her eustation tube. Hopefully this new game plan works. We go back in 2-3 weeks to see if we are making any improvement.

Spencer's appointment was supposed to be a simple pre-op follow up where we were supposed to hear that everything looked wonderful. As you may have guessed, that is not what we heard. The tube in his right ear is blocked and non-functioning. Though, we do know that it was clear and functioning 2 weeks ago when we were at the Peds office. But on Friday, not so much. I'm sure his croup wasn't helpful along with the fact that he is currently cutting 4 teeth. The ENT's PA was evaluating him prior to the ENT coming in and he was looking for cues as to what was going on. He peaked in his mouth and started counting... 1, 2, oh wow 3, oh my 4 teeth coming in. We are in another 2-3 week waiting game with him. Hopefully these drops do the trick and that tube returns to functioning.

The upside?? The upside is that we can make a follow up appointment for the both of them at the same time, so only one trip.

Spencer Is 10 Months!

Wow, we are quickly approaching that 12 months mark! But, I'll try and refrain from going crazy that my baby is nearly a whole year old and soak in the moments of the here and now.

This boy has developed quite a personality. He's so cute, funny, and silly. While he does get upset at things and he does let you know what he wants, he doesn't really have a serious side to him. Love him up and cuddle him and he's the happiest boy around. When he's not wiggling and on the move, he's been giving the best cuddles ever lately.

The major event in his life over the past month has to have been his tube surgery. What a remarkable difference it has made! I'm so thankful that we were finally able to step over that hurdle.

His mobility is faster and faster by the day. He love's the chase game and the giggles that accompany a good game of chase are heartwarming. He especially loves this game when we are trying catch him and dress him. He's cruising everything and will stand independently like it's no big deal.

One of his favorite activities has to be helping with the dishwasher. He could be anywhere and he'll hear the dishwasher door open. He'll scurry to it as fast as he can and begin unloading it. To reach the items on the top rack, all he has to do is stand on the door. His height is a definite benefit to him in this task.

Another favorite activity is reading books, that is once he's cleared the bookshelf. He will totally sit and interact with the book. To see him process the words, examine the pictures, and touch the textures is amazing. Thankfully he's inherited many of his sisters' books that they have outgrown!

Stairs! The boy is soo good on the stairs. He can cruise up them with amazing speed and balance. He can also go down once he's in position. Plenty of work remains on learning how to turn around at the top and go down feet first.

He likes to play in the yard and he likes the grass. The only way we could keep the girls on a blanket is if we put it in they yard. They wouldn't touch the grass. Spencer is all about the grass.

Baby food is a thing of the past. He'll still eat some food off the spoon, but only if you relinquish control. It is best to have 3 spoons. It goes something like this... fill one and hand it over, fill a second one and hand it over at which point he moves the first one (which is now empty) to his other hand, fill a third one and hand it over at which point he gives you the old empty one and moves the new empty one to his other hand. Sound complicated? It isn't terribly. We just go through a lot of spoons. Then he performs for the girls'. He'll leave a spoon in his mouth without holding on to it and move it up and down with his mouth. The girls' start laughing hysterically and he soaks it all in.

Otherwise he is eating all table food. He totally knows what food his sisters' are being offered and totally knows if he is not receiving fair and equal treatment. Give him what we are eating and he's a happy camper. He's eating fruits a whole lot better now that they aren't pureed. For the first time, we ordered him his very own kids meal (and a side of meatballs) when we went to dinner with our friends this week. Gotta love kids night! I can easily say that he ate more than either of his sisters did. No messing around, he eats and he's done. Gotta love that!

Eating 3 solid meals hasn't affected his nursing or daytime bottles. He's still all about nursing in the evening and first thing in the morning and I love it. I don't see that changing any time soon and I'm more than okay with that. For his daytime cups we'll probably transition to whole milk after we hit the 12-month mark and then I'll still nurse him when I'm available and he's interested.

He likes to feed the dogs from his highchair and the dogs have become totally annoying at the dinner table because they know that good stuff makes it to the floor. He also appears to think that dog food is yummy and the water dish is just one big cup of water. But rather than him going to the bowl of water, he picks up the ceramic bowl and tries to drink out of it. One mighty strong boy!

He's discovered the dog door and will be going through it any day now.

Proud Moment

Last night we went to dinner with some friends. It was quickly and clearly evident that we had gone far to long between visits. Our kids had changed so much! Well, Mr. Spencer has made himself his first friend.

Their daughter is 18 months old and Spencer is 10 months old. They checked each other out, talked to each other, she touched him nicely, Spencer pounded on her, she shared her cheerios, and he tried to steal her sippy cup. They totally made each other laugh. They really seemed to connect in a way I've not seen him connect with anyone. Sure, he plays with the girls and follows them all over the place. But finally he had someone more his size (ha) and closer to his age that was interested in him. They were able to communicate on a more similar level.

My proud moment comes when our son teaches their daughter to drop (or throw actually) her cup to the floor so Mommy can pick it up. I was shocked to hear that she was not privy to that game. Don't all babies play that game? Well, she caught on pretty darn quick and they both thought it was hilarious.